Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-07-29
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
THE THINNING OF FRUITS.

Perhaps no other horticultural
operation has been so much written
about, or has been so elOquently
advocated at the meetings, as that
of thinning of fruits, by which we
mean the removal of a portion OF
the crop that sets, that portions of
the crop that remains by having
double ratiOns plant food, may be
large: and better; yet in spite Of
all this expenditure OF ink and elo.
Quence, how little is there to show
for it Who thins fruit upon any
large scale /! 1t can be shown by
figures the one way to make fruit
growing pay is to sell good fruit at
large prices, and that the one way
to have good fruit, is to throw away
one.half or twO.thirds of it while 1t
is still young. Figures will prove
this, and we all know what figures
will MT do. With fruits under
glass, VIC should regard him as a
poor gardener who allowed every
peach or pear that set in the or
chard house, or every cluster that
set in the grapery, to grow and
ripen. Every one who had an OPP
pOrtunity to make the comparison
is aware that a peach ripened in
the open air is vastly inferior to
one ripened under glass in every
thing that characterizes a good
peach. 1t is not because of the
higher temperature glass allows US
to maintain, or of any other quail
ity attributable to the glass. 1t is
merely because the gardener can
not afford to grow inferior fruit
under glass, hence the trees are al
lowed to carry only that number of
peaches that practice has shown
that o tree Of a given size can
nOurish and carry on to perfection.
This is the chief cause of the supe.
riOrity of fruits, of course of the
same varieties, grown under glass
over the same when grown In the
open air. In removing the surplus,
this may be done before the flow
ers have bloomed, by the operation
Of diSbudding. This rarely re-
moves enough, and as soon as the
fruit has set a large share is re-
moved. If it appears that too
much still remains, the number
may be reduced when it is half
grown, and still more, if need be,
Just as ripening IS about beginning.
So with grapes, certain number
Of clusters Of which Is appOrtioned
to the age and strength Ofthe vine.
OF course, precision like this Is not
looked for in market culture, but
an approximation to it may be at
tempted, but etnothlng be carried
beyond the point of profit. If
fruit grower be DESTROYS Of testing
the matter, let him select two trees
of the same kind, peach, pear,
apple, and also two grape vines Of
each kind he proposes to grow, at
the same age, etc. Allow one of
each kind to 90 in the usual way,
and with the other, thin out from
One.half to twO.tbirds of the fruit
from the tree soon after it has set
fairly. If, when half grown, it ap-
pears that more thinning will be
profitable, do it, keepingan accurate
account of the cost Of dOingit. With
vines left to themselves each shoot
usually bears three clusters, some.
times more, they leaving two clus-
ters and also one, on each shoot,
and also in pinching the cane back
to three, two or one leaf beyond
the bunch or punches. IL is ex-
pected that the increased value of
the fruit, the price at which it is
sold, will leave a handsome profit.
Will it? The cost OF labor is the
great obstacle, and whoever will
devise methods for facilitating the
operations will find that it will pay
him Observation-Disclosures.